Wading in Water, Sharing Common Ground: Conservation Lessons from Beavers

You can’t stroll far in the Beartooth Wildlife Management Area in Montana without bumping into signs of beavers. In addition to snacking on the cattails, they had chewed away at willows, cottonwoods, and aspen—and their dam had pushed a creek out onto the road, creating minor chaos. It was against this backdrop that I set out alongside a creek with our team of seasonal techs and program leaders on our Beaver Conflict Resolution team and five staff members from Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks. 

While I’m a wildlife biologist by training, I still had a lot to learn about beavers. Why do they build dams and what do they do for our ecosystem, despite the challenges they pose to roads and infrastructure? While I sought the answers, I realized there were more lessons to be learned out in the field that day. Most important—through the lens of beavers, I discovered how conservationists of all stripes can come together to preserve the landscape they cherish. 

Beaver behavior 101: Why build dams in the first place? 

Let’s start with the why. Why dams? It’s simple: survival. Out there on the thriving creekside, with my waders on, the stream was clearly backed up, but I wasn’t expecting the water to come up to my chest. Wading through a rising waterline, I began to understand why beavers—an important prey for many wildlife species—build dams in the first place. 

The resulting pools allow beavers to enter their lodges underwater, where they stay hidden and safe in a protective home. As I approached the dam, the water lapping at my chest, I could suddenly feel the strategy. These dams aren’t just piles of sticks—they’re life-saving architecture.

Beavers are ecosystem and biodiversity boosters

Beavers are a telltale sign of a thriving ecosystem—their engineering skills create ripple effects that support the entire neighborhood. Their dams trap water, creating great ribbons of verdant life that benefit fish, amphibians, plants, and more. This is important in an era where we are all witnessing how climate change is destabilizing habitat and fueling wildfires. Beavers are our natural ally in facing these challenges together. By fostering wetlands, beavers act as biodiversity boosters and engineers of natural—and highly effective—fire breaks. 

These wetlands also provide habitat for over 80% of Montana’s wildlife species. Beaver dam complexes act as giant sponges that recharge groundwater, cycle nutrients, retain sediment, and slowly release water throughout the seasons. Their ongoing presence helps Montana’s rivers, ranchlands, forests, and communities stay resilient and thriving.

An engineering collab: Working with beavers

Historically, the benefits of beavers weren’t widely recognized. But today, more ranchers, landowners, and wildlife managers are realizing there’s a win-win solution.

Our approach is built for the long haul—keeping roads and pastures dry, beavers happy, and the ecosystem thriving.

One of our favorite tools? The “pond leveler” —accompanied with a whip-smart tech team to install it. A pond leveler consists of a plastic culvert 15 inches-wide and 20 feet long, and a contraption that looks like a big oval crab trap and stakes to keep it all in place. It works as a water flow management device, installed above a beaver dam, quietly draining water without disturbing the beaver’s home. It’s simply brilliant and the payoff is big: The beavers can continue their important work as landscape engineers.

Smelly Fun Fact: What the heck is castor, anyway? 

If you’ve never smelled beaver perfume, let me introduce you to beaver castor, or castoreum. It’s a strong, oily scent marker produced at the base of a beaver’s tail and used to mark their scent and territory. When I worked as a wildlife capture specialist, we used beaver castor to lure in mountain lions. The scent is so pungent it was effective for attracting the curious cats. 

As soon as we approached the dam, it hit me: the unmistakable smell of castor. The next thing I knew, I was practically swimming in it. Like oil, once castor gets on you, you’re stuck with the overpowering scent of bacterial decay—with a hit of vanilla. Yes, vanilla. Sounds crazy, I know. But I’m not the only one who thinks so.

Different backgrounds, common ground

When I look at people working together along the creek to put in a pond leveler, I’m struck by the diversity of experience. Each person has taken a different path to get there, yet we all are united by our love for Montana and the wildlife that occupy it. While many of us have some kind of wildlife experience, some hail from entirely different backgrounds. 

Sam, a seasonal tech who started just a few weeks prior, hails from the Air Force and was working inside missile silos before he stepped into his true passion: wildlife.

Beavers, it turns out, have a knack for more than building dams—they also build bridges between people who might otherwise never cross paths. And on that day, wading through cold water under a big Montana sky, I realized that’s a form of conservation just as important as any pond leveler we could install.

Check out this reel to discover how partnering with beavers yields a win-win!